The plants were identified in the field by botanist Percy Núñez, a professor at the National University of San Antonio Abad in Cusco, Peru.

At Yale a previous graduate of the course, Pria Anand showed that the fungus could live and prosper on a diet of polyurethane alone, and it is believed to be able to function in the oxygen-free conditions that exist at the bottom of landfill sites.

Jonathan Russell has isolated an enzyme that the fungi use to break down the plastic and Yale believes that this molecule alone could be useful in eliminating waste polyurethane.

Photo title: Students from Yale University on a field trip in Ecuador, where a fungus that can degrade plastic was discovered